5/10/2001 @ 6:30PM

Portland

The young and ambitious don’t usually move to Portland, and the area ranks dead last in its ratio of people who have never been married. Despite the recent growth in high-tech (which contributes to making it one of the top ten fastest job growth markets on our list), at heart, this is really a slacker town. Entire years of your life can vanish while you hang out, hike, hang out, windsurf and hang out some more, whether that’s in somebody’s living room or in one of the ubiquitous microbrew pubs. Outdoor types feel most at home in Portland, where polar fleece and Birkenstocks are standard issue and water bottles dangle from many a belt downtown. The local music scene is lively and well supported, though it largely retreated into indie snobbery with the passing of grunge. Because it’s Portland and because it rains so much, there are more cafes, bookstores and combinations thereof than most other cities of its size–staffed primarily by overeducated Reed College graduates. That’s the best thing about Portland: No one will ever make you feel bad about taking it easy. –Anna Rohleder